Look: NASCAR Has Unveiled A New Car For 2022
A new model car is coming to NASCAR tracks for the 2022 schedule. The organization unveiled its new “Next Gen” car, in what has been dubbed the “Rebirth of Stock.”
The new versions of the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, the Ford Mustang, and the Toyota TRD Camry were unveiled this afternoon. These are some very sleek, impressive new vehicles.
“I think that at the highest level, one of the main goals is just that the sport remains healthy and strong, that it remains attractive to our current OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), teams and fans, but also attracts new ones,” NASCAR senior vice president of racing innovation John Probst said of the Next Gen car.
“As we kind of dive into that, it’s sort of your overarching goal. Then we know to be attractive to our OEMs, we need to be relevant to them.”
#NextGen is here.
2022 will be headlined by the Toyota TRD Camry, the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. pic.twitter.com/plphH4h7bt
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 5, 2021
Safety is also of paramount concern for NASCAR, while still allowing for the kind of aggressive, physical racing that fans love. The car’s new composite body allows for more give, without compromising car performance or driver safety, Probst says.
“This new car’s going to allow them to get into the wall a little bit, get into each other a little bit, without really any worse for the wear as far as the performance of the vehicle,” Probst said. “We’re really hoping that this encourages them to get a little bit even more aggressive, if that’s possible. Our drivers are pretty aggressive already, but we think this composite body will really allow them to bump and bang a whole lot more.”
The car is also designed to allow for a hybrid engine in the future, which is a very significant step, as hybrid and electric vehicles become far more common in everyday life.
From NASCAR president Steve Phelps, a few weeks ago:
“The Next Gen car will certainly have the opportunity, if we decide to go to some form of electrification in a hybrid vehicle or hybrid engine, that the Next Gen car has the opportunity for us to drop that engine in there. The timing of it, it’s a difficult one, right? I would have said before COVID, we’re maybe looking at ’23. Timelines are tough just because we need to make sure that all the stakeholders who matter in this discussion, which are our race teams, our OEM partners, that they’re all aligned on what that would look like. It could be ’24. I think frankly the opportunity to have a new OEM partner will largely depend on what happens with that hybrid engine.”
We’re certainly excited to see these new cars hit the track next year.
[NASCAR]
The post Look: NASCAR Has Unveiled A New Car For 2022 appeared first on The Spun.
